CARACT, or CARAT, the name of that weight which expresses the degree of fineness of gold. The word is also written carrat, carrat, karact, and karat. Its origin is contested; but the most probable opinion is that of Kennet, who derives it from caracta, a term which anciently denoted any weight, and came afterwards to be appropriated to that which expresses the fineness of gold and the gravity of diamonds.
These carats are not real determinate weights, but only imaginary. The whole mass, be the weight what it will, is conceived to be divided into twenty-four carats; and as many twenty-fourth parts as it contains of pure gold, it is called gold of so many carats, or so many carats fine. Thus, gold of eighteen carats is a mixture, of which eighteen parts are of pure gold, and the other six of an inferior metal. This is the common way of reckoning in Europe, and at the gold mines in the Spanish West Indies, but with some variation in the subdivision of the carat; for among us it is divided into four grains, among the Germans into twelve parts, and among the French, according to Mr. Helot, into thirty-two. The Chinese reckon by a different division called touches, of which the highest number, or that which denotes pure gold, is a hundred; so that a hundred touches correspond to our twenty-four carats.